19 December 2011 -- Vernalis plc, today announces it has achieved a further research milestone in its drug discovery collaboration with H.Lundbeck A/S (Lundbeck). As a result, Vernalis will receive a payment of £0.4m from Lundbeck in recognition of this achievement and the collaboration now progresses into its third stage.

The collaboration, which began in December 2010, utilises Vernalis’ fragment and structure-based drug discovery platform against a kinase target. Under the terms of this collaboration Vernalis will receive fees and a potential share in the downstream success of the product in the form of milestones and royalties on sales. The financial terms of this collaboration are not disclosed.

Ian Garland, CEO of Vernalis commented: “We are delighted with the progress of this collaboration and the continued validation of our fragment and structure-based drug discovery platforms. We look forward to continued success in our collaboration with Lundbeck”.

Enquiries:

Vernalis Contacts

Ian Garland, Chief Executive Officer

+44 (0) 118 989 9360

David Mackney, Chief Financial Officer

Brunswick Group

Jon Coles

+44 (0) 20 7404 5959

Kristin Shine

Taylor Rafferty

Rob Newman

+44 (0) 20 7614 2900

Faisal Kanth

About Vernalis

Vernalis is a revenue generating development stage pharmaceutical company with significant expertise in drug development. The Group has one marketed product, frovatriptan for the acute treatment of migraine, and eight candidates in development, seven of which are designated priority programmes. Four of these priority development programmes are currently unpartnered and three are partnered. Pipeline programmes are derived from both our own research activities where we have significant expertise in fragment and structure based drug discovery, as well as from collaborations. Our technologies, capabilities and products are endorsed by collaborations with Endo, GSK, Lundbeck, Menarini, Novartis and Servier.